Key to a good marriage? Share housework

The percentage of Americans who consider children "very important" to a successful marriage has dropped sharply since 1990, and more now cite the sharing of household chores as pivotal, according to a sweeping new survey.

The Pew Research Center survey on marriage andparentingfound that children had fallen to eighth out of nine on a list of factors that people associate with successful marriages - well behind "sharing household chores," "good housing," "adequate income," a "happy sexual relationship" and "faithfulness."

In a 1990 World Values Survey, children ranked third in importance among the same items, with 65 percent saying children were very important to a good marriage. Just 41 percent said so in the new Pew survey.

Chore-sharing was cited as very important by 62 percent of respondents, up from 47 percent in 1990.

The survey also found that, more Americans say the main purpose of marriage is the "mutual happiness and fulfillment" of adults rather than the "bearing and raising of children."

The survey's findings buttress concerns expressed by numerous scholars and family-policy experts, among them Barbara Dafoe Whitehead of Rutgers University's National Marriage Project.

"The popular culture is increasingly oriented to fulfilling the desires of adults," she wrote in a recent report. "Child-rearing values - sacrifice, stability, dependability, maturity - seem stale and musty by comparison."

Virginia Rutter, a sociology professor at Framingham (Mass.) State College and board member of the Council on Contemporary Families, said the shifting views may be linked in part to America's relative lack of family-friendly workplace policies such aspaid leaveand subsidized child care.

"If we value families ... we need to change the circumstances they live in," she said, citing the challenges faced by young, two-earner couples as they ponder having children.

The Pew survey was conducted by telephone from mid-February through mid-March among a random, nationwide sample of 2,020 adults.


(Agencies)

一項(xiàng)大規(guī)模的最新調(diào)查顯示，美國(guó)人中認(rèn)為孩子對(duì)于美好婚姻“十分重要”的比例自上世紀(jì)90年代以來(lái)急劇下降，如今更多的美國(guó)人認(rèn)為分擔(dān)家務(wù)才是美好婚姻的關(guān)鍵。

美國(guó)皮尤調(diào)查中心此項(xiàng)有關(guān)婚姻和育兒的調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，在人們列舉的與美好婚姻有關(guān)的九大因素中，“孩子”下滑至第八位，位居“分擔(dān)家務(wù)”、“住房條件好”、“收入富足”、“性生活愉快”及“忠誠(chéng)”幾大因素之后。

在1990年的“世界價(jià)值觀調(diào)查”中，“孩子”在以上幾個(gè)因素中排名第三，65%的美國(guó)人認(rèn)為孩子對(duì)于美好婚姻十分重要。而在此項(xiàng)最新的皮尤調(diào)查中，只有41%持相同觀點(diǎn)。

62%的受訪者認(rèn)為“分擔(dān)家務(wù)”十分重要，超過(guò)了1990年的47%。

另外，調(diào)查還發(fā)現(xiàn)，更多的美國(guó)人認(rèn)為婚姻的主要目的是兩人之間的“相互愉悅與滿足”，而不是“養(yǎng)育孩子”。

該調(diào)查的結(jié)果造成了很多學(xué)者和家庭政策專家們的擔(dān)憂，魯特格斯大學(xué)國(guó)家婚姻項(xiàng)目的芭芭拉·達(dá)佛·懷特黑德就是其中一位。

她在最近的一篇報(bào)告中寫道：“大眾文化正日益以滿足成年人的欲望為導(dǎo)向。而犧牲、穩(wěn)定、可靠及成熟等育兒的價(jià)值觀似乎已經(jīng)過(guò)時(shí)了。”

弗萊明翰州立大學(xué)的社會(huì)學(xué)教授、當(dāng)代家庭研究會(huì)的理事會(huì)成員弗吉妮亞·魯特稱，這種觀念的轉(zhuǎn)變一部分可能與美國(guó)缺少如帶薪假期及子女津貼等關(guān)心員工家庭的政策有關(guān)。

她在談及年輕的上班族夫婦在考慮要孩子時(shí)所面臨的挑戰(zhàn)時(shí)說(shuō)：“如果我們重視家庭……我們就應(yīng)該改變他們生活的環(huán)境?！?/font>